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Western Angling Report Sept. 3rd 2001
by Danny Goldrick

It was another wonderful week for anglers on this magnificent trout lough, catches surpassing all other waters in the country. A group of 5 anglers from Northern Ireland including Assembly Member, Jim Wilson, went fishing over last Saturday and Sunday from Mike Holian's Angling Centre at Cross, near Cong, and they reported some excellent trout catches, having 21 for approximately 40 lbs. Among their catch were trout of 4 lb and 4.5 lb, all to wet fly. The party caught many other trout which they sportingly released again to the water. Mr. Wilson is a top-class fly-fisher and is a regular visit to the West of Ireland for trout and salmon fishing, Lough Mask and Lough Corrib being among his favourites for trout angling. Other anglers to record trout returns the same Angling Centre were Bert Blakely and Joe Cowan who had 4 for 6 lb for a day; Rhinhold Kielman from Germany who landed a 7 lb trout and another of 2 lb; Rolf Bucher from Switzerland who had 2 for 4 lb and Karl Piscator from Germany who took 4 for 6 lb.

Frank Costello's Angling Centre at Ashford Castle reports some excellent trout fishing in the past few days, Frank himself having 6 wonderful trout for a total weight of 23 lb to the dapped daddylonglegs, his best tipping the scales at 8.25 lb.

233 anglers competed in the Padraic McGrath Memorial Cup held at Greenfields last Sunday, and they accounted for 160 trout for 198 lb, best weighing 3.75 lb. With 6 trout for 8.3 lb T. Bradshaw won the cup, followed into second place by Cork angler Michael Touhy who had 5 fish for 8.29 lb, and in third place was by Tom Sweeney with 5 for 5.83 lb. Best Junior Angler was Eoin Kelly from Oughterard who recorded 3 trout for 5 lb. Sorcha Weld from Kildare was best Lady Angler with 2 fish for 3 lb, and the heaviest trout prize went to W. P. Sheehan.

In the lough area between Greenfields and Cornamona, a total of 256 anglers fished for the week, recording 240 trout for 318.24 lb in 264 angling days, including 19 for 27 lb by Des Foley and Paul O'Mara in 3 days with wet fly; 17 for 24.5 lb by Frank Reilly and a friend in 2 days with wet fly; 8 for 10 lb in two days by John and Laurence McCarty, and 7 for 12 .5 lb in just two evenings by Maggie Brown from Cornamona.

In the Oughterard area where trout fishing was excellent at times, 48 anglers landing 205 for 307 lb in 160 angling days. Most of the trout were caught either on wet fly or the dapped natural insects. The Barton family from Dublin landed over 100 trout inside two weeks' fishing, many of which were released again to the lough, and Jim Cahill when he recorded 12 over two days. At the moment we have an unconfirmed report of a record trout caught on the lough near Birchall, said to be the heaviest of all time and caught by a German angler. The record for the lough is over 21 lb.

The water level rose several inches during the week, the inflowing rivers creating some discolouration in several areas of the lough but, nevertheless, trout angling picked up quite well towards the weekend, 23 rods having 21 trout for 30 lb in 40 rod days. This is not a great return for the number of days spent fishing. However, reports say most of the trout were caught at the weekend when conditions were more favourable. Mick Dunne from Rochfort Bridge and Dublin, fishing for just one day with wet fly, landed 5 trout 7 lb.

Trout angling was quite poor all week with only a small number of trout landed, the Lough Carra Anglers' Association having a small return in their competition at the weekend, 93 competitors having only 15 trout for the day.

The fishery has a lot of salmon at the moment but very few anglers are bothering to take the opportunity of fishing for them. Strangely, over the past few weeks only a few anglers fished the river, the most successful one being Sean O'Toole who has landed salmon on most of his short evening visits, including 2 for 11 lb on Sunday evening last. For locals and visitors who wish to fish this famous salmon fishery, they can contact Seamus Hartigan at: 091 562388.

Despite good conditions and reports of lots of salmon in the rivers, particularly the Bunowen River, there are very few anglers fishing for them. For permits anglers can contact Gaffney's Bar, Louisburgh, telephone: 098 66150.

Terry Gallagher, the manager of the fishery, telephone: 091 572 196, reports: "There was a slow start to the week at the Costello & Fermoyle Fishery as bright, still conditions dominated, but by Wednesday things changed for the better. The anglers were not slow to take advantage of the rain and cloud-cover and were rewarded with a total rod catch for the week of 214 trout.

On Wednesday Mr. R Freeland (England) was fishing Glenicmurrin Lough and landed 19 trout. Mr Valori (England) was also on form as he landed 12 trout on Muckinagh Lough. Conditions were good again on Thursday and Mr Freeland struck it lucky again on Glenicmurrin, adding 13 more trout to his records. Mr M. Botham (England) responded with 15 trout on Fermoyle Lough on the same day. There was reasonable cloud cover and a light S.W. breeze on Fri and Mr. Freeland hit the ground running again taking 20 fish on Muckinagh. Mr. G. Fitzjohn (Galway) and Mr. J. Hildreth (England) were not found wanting as they recorded 11 trout on Glenicmurrin including a beautiful 3.5 lb fish.

Mr Valori decided to follow the fish higher up in the catchment and settled on Clogher Lough where he was rewarded with 7 cracking trout including another 3.5 lb fish.

The larger trout are now being caught, hooked and risen at Costello & Fermoyle along with good numbers of fresh fish which will keep things interesting for the coming week. For information on bookings and accommodation please contact Terry Gallagher at the above number.

This fishery produces around 500-600 salmon per year. It has very comfortable accommodation at its Aashleigh Lodge, providing a high standard of cuisine and specialising in the best quality seafood. The lodge has recently undergone extensive renovations throughout bringing a whole new dimension of comfort to the house. Owing to the timely competition of the renovation programme there is currently availability for fishing at the river with accommodation at Aashleigh Lodge in August and September. This is an ideal opportunity for enthusiastic anglers to avail of fishing on this important fishery. Interested anglers should contact the manager of the fishery, Jim Stafford, Aashleigh Lodge, Leenane, Co. Galway, telephone: 095 42252, or E-mail: Erriff.fish@iol.ie

The river is at Belclare, near Westport, and anglers can fish there by Contact Tom Bourke for permits at: 086 8331586.

No report this week.

Richard McMahon from Westmeath landed a nice 8.75 lb salmon at the Derryclare Butts on Saturday evening last. It came to a size 12 Stoat's Tail fly. Mike Heenan from Galway fished Lough Inagh and he took a 4.5 lb grilse to a Claret Dabbler. In addition to the above fish caught, 23 trout were also landed, 15 by Niall Greene and John Carroll from Dublin. Colin Folan, the manager of the fishery, says that the prospects look much better for September as the fishery has a good head of salmon. For permits and boat hire contact Colin at: 091 34706.

For boat hire and permits anglers should contact John Scott's Shop, Aughergower, telephone: 098 25119.

No report this week

Alan Roy and Dominique Lautier had a great day's blue shark fishing aboard John Brittain's Blue Water deep-sea boat. Fishing about 20 miles off Slyne Head, the anglers had a better day than they could ever hope for catching10 blue shark. Biggest fish was a beautiful Blue caught by Alan which skipper John calculated to weigh 120 lb. The fight was a long one, leaving the Scottish angler exhausted afterwards. Best catch honours went to Dominick from France who had a rare Porbeagle which, although just over 1 meter long, weighed about 55lbs. Porbeagle shark are quite rare along our coast at the moment but were very common at one time. Photos are posted to our web site. For deep sea angling trips: John and Sue Brittain, Sharamore House, Clifden. Tel. 095 21073

No Report This Week

No Report this week

Fishing tackle shops and tackle suppliers in the City, including The Great Outdoors, Freeney's, Duffy's, Gowran & Bradshaw, generously sponsored the restocking.

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